Original Side Story: Turbulent Assignment.
///
///
In the Diamond Kingdom, things tend to get quite hectic around this time of year.
As the fiscal year draws to a close, it’s not unusual for companies and government offices alike to become busy with end-of-year tasks throughout the kingdom.
Just like accounting, students in this country also go through transition periods.
At every school, they are frantically preparing for the upcoming graduation ceremonies.
For those graduating students who have already decided on their paths, this period likely affords them some free time.
However, every year there are a small number of graduating students who remain busy even at this point.
Here we have one young man, who has yet to determine his path despite graduating from a school that is supposed to guarantee success in this country.
His name is Nao Bruce.
He himself is in precisely that situation.
Or rather, he himself is not the one keeping busy – it’s the adults around him who are truly occupied, on top of the usual pre-graduation bustle.
This would be understandable at an ordinary school, but here it is quite abnormal.
Even at a regular school, if a student’s employment remains undecided so close to graduation, at most the student themselves would be busy, with perhaps the staff of the career services office begrudgingly handling the matter.
Career counselors at typical schools would never be overwhelmed just because many students have not secured jobs.
Moreover, this particular school does not even have a career services division.
The reason is that this school is the only one in the country that trains elite military personnel.
While there are several officer academies, at this elite officer training institution where all graduates are treated as elites, there is no need for an employment division – the graduates are simply sent off to the space forces. However, in Nao’s case, that usual routine somehow failed to function.
To explain how graduates are typically handled at this school: As graduation approaches, the candidates’ grades are sent to the military.
Based on those grades and other factors, the military then determines the careers and assignments for the incoming elites.
The same process was undertaken for Nao, but for some reason, the military rejected accepting him.
A response came back from the central personnel bureau that he would be difficult to place in any assignment.
Yet having met certain requirements, the school had no choice but to allow him to graduate.
The school could do no more, graduating him but leaving his assignment undecided.
In fact, from the moment these prospective graduates enrolled, they were registered as non-commissioned officers in the space forces, meaning Nao too was already a servicemember.
His official status was simply that he had been assigned to the school.
So in Nao’s case, after graduating he was essentially handed over to the military’s personnel bureau, the department currently dealing with the busiest situation.
The personnel bureau has been frantically coordinating with the school and the personnel officers of the country’s two fleets, but cannot seem to reach a resolution through the normal channels alone.
Hey, what’s the deal with Candidate Bruce?”
The section chief overseeing the problematic candidates calls out to a subordinate.
“Yes, we just received word from the Second Fleet’s personnel officer that they cannot accept him either.”
“Well, we’d already gotten a similar response from the First Fleet regarding him, hadn’t we? What are you planning to do?”
“With all due respect sir, as a mere staff member I cannot make suggestions to the personnel officers of the fleets.”
Bruce’s case has already been escalated beyond just his handlers to the section chief with actual personnel authority, but a solution remains elusive.
The personnel section is now re-examining the issues surrounding Bruce.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT GADGETIZEDPANDA.COM
Behind this problem lies a deep, dark aspect of this country.
First, when candidates graduate from this school, their careers are determined based on their grades, personalities, skills and other factors observed.
They are then rotated through the departments deemed necessary for their respective career paths. After one or two years, having been promoted to lieutenant junior grade upon graduation, they finally take their respective career assignments.
So in theory, Bruce could undergo the same rotational process while being evaluated to determine his ideal career path. However, this country’s customs do not allow for that.
Fundamentally, the career paths split into two major factions.
Or rather, more accurately there is a third, larger “other” faction as well.
Calling them factions may be too strong, as they are more loosely associated groups that tend to be assigned to related workplaces later on – but we can omit those details for this explanation.
There are two factions that are extremely different, to the point where they are like oil and water.
One faction is made up of strategists and military administrators who work behind the desk.
The other faction is led by battle-hungry generals and produces elite front-line officers.
In reality, the true strategists and generals are quite few, and most end up as average officers.
When cadets graduate from the military academy, they are placed under the patronage of one of these factions and cycle through various departments.
The cadet candidates who are considered potential strategists are often unsuited for hands-on, rough work in the field.
Similarly, the cadet candidates who are considered potential generals often struggle with intellectual, desk-bound work.
While all these cadets have exceptional intelligence and abilities, having graduated from the elite military academy, they still have weaknesses that can cause problems when they start working in the field. The idea is to rotate these cadets through different positions to develop them into future leaders. So their superiors tend to overlook minor mistakes made by these junior officers.
However, due to the factional politics in this country, even minor missteps by a cadet can be used as ammunition by the opposing faction. So it’s common for the strategist faction to reject candidates from the general faction, and vice versa, hindering the proper development of future officers.
On this occasion,, the rival factions sincerely discussed the matter and agreed to take responsibility for the identities of their respective candidates, sending them off and accepting them back.
At the same time, an unwritten rule was created that the misdeeds of the candidates during their training period would not be used as ammunition to attack each other.
Thus, in this country, the graduates of this elite training school have their careers decided immediately upon graduation, based on the qualities of the candidates. Each faction takes responsibility for them until the end. However, in the case of the candidate Bruce, he was rejected by all factions due to the relationship between his qualities and his background.
As a result, he was refused acceptance in any workplace.
The root of the matter is that while his qualities are suited for the faction of strategic thinkers, the generals, he cannot join that faction.
Without any protection from any faction, it is clear that he would hinder his comrades if he encountered any rough situations in the field. The brute-force faction naturally tries to avoid him.
On the other hand, the faction of strategic thinkers is firmly entrenched in their elitist ideology.
In this country, graduates of the elite training school are treated as military elite, but the class that produces the strategic thinkers is only the wealthy who have received ample education since childhood.
Even within the same wealthy class, there have been hardly any from the business world.
Even without much thought, it’s a matter of course that, perhaps because there’s now a certain balance in place, there aren’t major battles raging around this country at the moment. However, it’s still an era of turmoil unlike any other in history.
Even just a little while ago, during the time of intense combat, those in the business could still be prosperous enough with just their family business alone. Businesspeople of respectable status would never dream of sending their children into dangerous military ventures.
Due to this history, an unwritten rule has emerged where only the nobility or high-ranking military officers’ children can become staff officers, the elite position among the strategic thinkers.
Certainly, in the past, there may have been individuals with qualities akin to the troublesome candidate Bruce, but the military leaders did not accept those with a poor background.
However, such individuals from the past, even if they couldn’t become combat leaders, still possessed enough ability to be accepted into other factions.
Therefore, issues with assignments never escalated to this extent in the past.
At most, there may have been voices lamenting the loss of talented candidates, but such concerns would easily vanish with a single word from influential nobles.
His qualities, however, were exceptional.
Because his qualities were too outstanding in the military direction, he was even rejected from other factions.
Given that everyone knew problems would arise in volatile situations, nobody could accept him.
No, they didn’t.
Not just among the nobility, but among those connected to the upper echelons of society, there tends to be a tendency to judge based on whether one’s own reasoning is correct rather than serving the country.
Lately, this tendency has only worsened.
It’s said that even the third princess of this country is deeply concerned about the country’s development in the face of such realities.
Returning to the issue of the problematic candidate Bruce, the problem had already transcended one department and had finally been entrusted to the bureau chief, Lord Dordon, for review under the guise of a post-report
With graduation is fast approaching, and there is little time left.
Director General Dordon of the Personnel Bureau was recently entrusted with the Bureau by the King’s orders. He has just begun reforming the troubled military personnel within the Bureau, tackling the deep-rooted problems in the Space Force.
“Ah, problems have already surfaced. But, is there no way to fix this? That intolerable nobility and their elitist mentality…”
“Even so, Your Excellency, that mentality is what supports their very identity,” the bureaucrat secretary replied.
“But that ‘illness’ of a mentality is hindering the nation’s talent development. Based on his records, I think we could assign him to the supply division, where he could deliver results starting tomorrow. What do you think?”
Director General Dordon casually asked the bureaucrat secretary.
Yes, in this country, there are already many who have noticed how the nobility’s attitude is starting to erode the nation’s foundation.
The King is one of them, and he has long been seeking allies. Recently, he has been placing his trusted people in key positions in the Personnel Bureau, but their numbers are still insufficient.
At least, they have begun by containing the problem. Three years ago, they finally managed to appoint the King’s confidant as the Space Force Chief.
The Chief’s first task was to place Lieutenant General Dordon, the King’s confidant, in the Personnel Bureau.
Even with the Chief’s strong political power, it took over a year, and it was only last year that the King finally managed to reclaim the Personnel Bureau from the nobility.
But the process is far from over.
Also check out my friend Localizermeerkat for more LN translations!
BUY THE SOURCE MATERIAL TO SUPPORT THE AUTHOR !!!
Kindly click on the green button above and contribute to filling the green bar if you’re interested in having another LN from the request page translated. Also, every donation is being used to purchase the source material and to fund more English translations.
Please consider joining my Ko-Fi membership. By becoming a member, you’ll also gain access to 2-10 additional chapters of all of the novels from this site translated into English. Last but not least your support will also assist me in upholding the translation quality and speed. For more information, please follow the link.
Donation for faster release is always welcome
Additionally, I am now accepting translation requests.
Thanks for the treat.
this attempt to reform the country means the game of dominoes that started from nao’s first mission will fall and things gonna change big time